The present invention relates to the technology of mounting and dismounting a cup body to and from a liquid treatment apparatus that applies a treating liquid, a resist liquid for example, upon a substrate, the substrate may be a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate (LCD substrate) of liquid crystal display devices.
In a photoresist process, which constitutes one of the semiconductor fabrication process steps, a resist liquid is applied upon a surface of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer (referred to hereinafter as “wafer”), followed by an exposure process, and a developing process is conducted thereafter by using a developing liquid such that there is formed a mask pattern on the surface of the wafer. Such a process is conducted generally by using a system in which an exposure apparatus is coupled with a coating and developing apparatus that carries out application and developing of a resist.
A spin coating process is one of the liquid treatment processes that applies a coating liquid, which is one of the processing liquids and including a resist liquid, developing liquid, and the like, upon a wafer surface. A brief explanation will be made upon a liquid treatment apparatus 1 that uses this process.
First, a wafer W is held generally horizontally on a spin chuck 11, and a coating liquid supplied from a supply path not illustrated is supplied generally at the central part of the surface of the wafer W by ejecting the coating liquid from a supply nozzle 15 in the state that the supply nozzle 15 is set at a location opposite to the surface of the wafer W.
Further, the wafer W is rotated about a vertical axis, and the coating liquid is spread over the entire surface of the wafer W by the centrifugal force generated as a result of spinning of the wafer W. With this, a coating film is formed on the surface of the wafer W.
Surrounding the spin chuck 11, there is disposed a cylindrical cup body 2 for suppressing scatter of the coating liquid in such a manner that the cup body 2 surrounds the wafer W held upon a spin chuck 11 from a lateral direction. Further, there is formed a flow of the air from a processing space 10a of the liquid treatment apparatus 1 into the interior of the cup body 2, wherein the air thus entered into the cup body 2 is thereafter evacuated to the outside.
With this, the coating liquid that has scattered from the wafer W at the time of the liquid treatment process is evacuated together with the air flow from an evacuation port 25 in the form of a mist. Further, some of the scattered coating liquid is collected inside the cup body and is discharged from a drain port 26 as a drain.
On the other hand, there are cases in which a part of the coating liquid traveling through the cup body 2 causes adhesion, solidification or deposition inside the cup body 2. Thereby, the evacuation path of the mist or drain may be blocked, resulting in degradation of evacuation efficiency of the air flow.
Thus, there is conducted a maintenance work periodically, once in a week, for example, wherein the cup body 2 is dismounted from the liquid treatment apparatus 1 and a substitute cup body 2 is mounted in place thereof.    Patent Reference 1 Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 2002-280296 Official Gazette